Somewhere Beyond the Sea - T.J. Klune

[goodreads]

Title: Somewhere Beyond the Sea (Cerulean Chronicles #2)
Author: T.J. Klune
Genre: Fantasy, lgbtq+
Rating: 3/5
# pages: Audiobook ~16hrs
Date read: October 2024

Arthur Parnassus lives a good life built on the ashes of a bad one.

He’s the master of a strange orphanage on a distant and peculiar island, and he hopes to soon be the adoptive father to the six dangerous and magical children who live there.

Arthur works hard and loves with his whole heart so none of the children ever feel the neglect and pain that he once felt as an orphan on that very same island so long ago. He is not alone: joining him is the love of his life, Linus Baker, a former caseworker in the Department In Charge of Magical Youth. And there’s the island’s sprite, Zoe Chapelwhite, and her girlfriend, Mayor Helen Webb. Together, they will do anything to protect the children.

But when Arthur is summoned to make a public statement about his dark past, he finds himself at the helm of a fight for the future that his family, and all magical people, deserve.

And when a new magical child hopes to join them on their island home—one who finds power in calling himself monster, a name that Arthur worked so hard to protect his children from—Arthur knows they’re at a breaking point: their family will either grow stronger than ever or fall apart.

Welcome back to Marsyas Island. This is Arthur’s story.


Unfortunately I didn't like this as much as I had expected to.

When I finished the first book I wrote in my review: "It's not really a book that lends itself to a sequel". That is still my opinion, and also reflects in the rating I ended up giving here. This sequel lacked most of the charm I found in the first book in the series.

I still enjoyed Linus' and Arthur's interactions, I loved the kids (especially Sal), and I really enjoyed seeing the kids relate to the townspeople. But where the main mood of the first book was hopeful and optimistic, the mood in this one just felt flat. Both Rowder and Miss Marblemaw seemed cartoon-like in their evilness, and were without any kind of depth. I could have excused that in Rowder, as she only paid a small part, but Miss Marblemaw just ended up annoying me. She was the kind of villain you hate to hate - a bit like Umbridge in HP5.

Also, I didn't feel that Arthur's angst about his anger rang true. I know that THitCS is written from Linus' point of view, and we therefore don't get to see much beneath the surface of Arthur, but I still thought there was a significant change of his character between these two books. And at the same time, the "voices" of the two books were so similar that I kept forgetting that we were hearing Arthur's thoughts rather than Linus'.

And finally the ending just didn't work for me. Too perfect, too deus ex machina. But with T.J. Klune making Rowder as evil as he did, I'm hard pressed to see how else it could have ended.

So why still 3 stars instead of 2? At the end of the day, T.J. Klune writes incredibly charming books, so even at "not his best", is books are still better than most. I loved getting to read more about the kids, and giggled at all the references to his other books - especially the Verania series :D